Lifuka Island Airport

Lifuka Island Airport (IATA: HPA, ICAO: NFTL), also known as Salote Pilolevu Airport or Haʻapai Airport, is an airport on Lifuka in Tonga. The airport is located 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the capital Panga, and is only served domestically, roughly 40 minutes by flight to Tongatapu and 30 minutes to Vava'u. Taxis serve the airport, and services include a cafe inside the terminal.[2]

Lifuka Island Airport

Salote Pilolevu Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorMinistry of Civil Aviation
LocationLifuka, Haʻapai, Tonga
Elevation AMSL29 ft / 9 m
Coordinates19°46′36″S 174°20′28″W
Websitewww.tongaairports.com
Map
NFTL
Location of airport in Tonga
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
11/29 2,300 701 bituminous, tar or asphalt
Source: World Aero Data[1]
Terminal airside
Terminal landside
Real Tonga Airlines

One of the airport's most unique features is the dirt road intersecting the runway. Gates staffed by airport employees are used to prevent access during aircraft operation, the rest of the airport otherwise secured with barbed wire fencing.

There is no aviation fuel or refuelling service for aircraft available at the airport.[3]

History

Royal Tongan Airlines commenced operations to Ha'apai in the mid 1980s with CASA 212 aircraft. Around this time the airfield was improved, allowing Twin Otter operations to commence.

HS 748 operations followed this before the Short 360 began services on the route, flying to Ha'apai until the airline's collapse.[4]

Following the collapse of Royal Tongan Airlines, Peau Vava'u was formed on the 27th of May 2004 as Tonga's first domestic-only airline, and remained the only airline in Tonga for a short period of time as a one-airline policy was imposed. This policy was revoked in 2005, the second domestic operating license being taken up by Airlines Tonga later that year.[5]

Peau Vava'u operated flights to Ha'apai with leased DC-3s in June 2004, with Convair CV-580 flights commencing in May 2005 subleased from Reef Air and Air Chathams.[6]

Air Fiji formed Airlines Tonga in December 2005 as a joint venture with Tongan travel agency Teta Tours. The airline was created to provide domestic services to Tonga, Ha'apai among the destinations.

Air Fiji chartered New Zealand operator Air Chathams to fly services in July 2006 for Airlines Tonga with Convair CV-580 aircraft for about a month.[7]

Also in 2006, Peau Vava'u cut all flights after damage to its office in November. The airline never resumed flights.[5] This made Airlines Tonga the only domestic carrier in Tonga until its collapse in August 2008.

On the 14th of April 2008, Chathams Pacific began five weekly flights to Ha'apai from Tongatapu. Services were inaugurated after the failure of Airlines Tonga and Peau Vava'u in the preceding years to fill the gap they left. This made the airline the only operator for some time.

Ha'apai flights were once again provided by Convair CV-580s, but also a Fairchild Metroliner and a Beech Queen Air.

With the announcement of Chinese funding for a new airline to compete with Chathams Pacific in early 2012, CEO Craig Emeny announced a withdrawal of flights from the 2nd of March 2013.[7]

Real Tonga supposedly would commence operation with two leased Harbin Y-12s on the 4th of March[8], however due to delays in aircraft arrivals, Air Chathams was chartered to fly services for the week following the end of operations.[7]

Real Tonga would later receive a their own Y-12 and a Xian MA60 amid controversy over the type's safety.[8] The MA60 was grounded in February 2015 due to these concerns.[9] The airline has repetitively grounded the type since, but as of 2020, it's reported to still be operating.[10]

In May 2016 Real Tonga commenced Saab 340 operations to Ha'apai.[11]

The airport's deteriorating runway surface has been reported as the cause of multiple incidents of foreign object debris damages to aircraft operating to the airfield in 2015.[9]

Airlines and destinations

As of 2011, Lifuka received four flights a day from varying destinations.[3]

AirlinesDestinations
Real Tonga Nukuʻalofa, Vava'u
gollark: I thought it was just a joke.
gollark: Wait, was underwater basket weaving actually a thing?
gollark: A lot of things companies want college degrees for apparently don't particularly need them. So just ban companies from discriminating based on degrees!
gollark: They're not just going to randomly lower prices as long as the incentives exist for them to not do that.
gollark: I don't even mean college/university/whatever. Or at least not ONLY that.

References
  2. "Pilolevu Airport - Ha'apai". Tonga Airports Limited. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  3. "Environmental Management Plan for Tonga Aviation Infrastructure Investment Project (TAIIP)". Tonga Airports Limited/Ministry of Public Enterprises: 8–9 – via Worldbank.
  4. "Royal Tongan Airlines". web.archive.org. 2001-02-02. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  5. "Oceanic Voyages: Aviation in the Pacific" (PDF). Pacific Study Series: 124–126. 2007 – via Asian Development Bank.
  6. "Peau Vava'u - Travel with Tonga's Domestic Airline to Tongatapu, Ha'apai and Vava'u". web.archive.org. 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  7. L, Steve (2013-04-14). "3rd Level New Zealand: Air Chathams' South Pacific Operations". 3rd Level New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  8. "Tonga Businesses Worried Over Local Air Services - January 25, 2013". web.archive.org. 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  9. L, Steve (2015-05-08). "3rd Level New Zealand: I bet Craig is glad he dropped Tonga". 3rd Level New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  10. "Tongan gov't to resume MA-60 ops in 1H20". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  11. L, Steve (2016-04-26). "3rd Level New Zealand: Saab for Real Tonga". 3rd Level New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
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